In The Things I Would Tell You, edited by Sabrina Mahfouz, British Muslim women write. It is a vibrant collection on everything from Islamic Tinder to friendship, from desire to religion, from war to representation; ‘an alternative to the current homogenous narrative of British Muslim identity’. (The Skinny)

We are delighted to welcome contributors to the best selling anthology The Things I Would Tell You: British Muslim Women Write, edited by Sabrina Mahfouz, published by Saqi Books.  Join us for readings and discussion of the anthology as well as some poetry with fabulous poet Nafeesa Hamid.   One other speaker to be confirmed. We will also be able to hear some of Nafeesa’s poems from her forthcoming collection to be published by Verve Poetry Press.

Nafeesa Hamid is a poet, playwright and spoken word artist from Birmingham.  Her work engages with issues of mental health, domestic violence, gender, identity and culture.  She regulary performs in the Midlands and London and has worked with Apples and Snakes and Twisted Tongues among  others.  She is part of Mouthy Poets, a collective of young artists and performers based in Nottingham.

£4 including refreshments.  Booking essential. To book a place, simply email us at  fiveleaves.bookshopevents@gmail.co.uk

An event with Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature and Five Leaves Bookshop as part of Feminist Book Fortnight

Nottingham welcomes Elif Shafak , internationally acclaimed author and political commentator. This lecture aims to provide a platform for leading writers and thinkers to share their ideas and promote Nottingham city’s wide ranging expertise on international literature, literacy and the wider creative economy to a variety of audiences nationally and internationally.

In her lecture Elif Shafak will talk about literature in the context of gender equality and reflect on the individual and multi-layered experiences of women.  She will talk about what reading means to her in private and professional life and delve into how it plays a role not just in enabling choice and action, but also in helping us to understand the perspective of others.

Please note venue: : Arts Centre Lecture Theatre at Djanogly Art Gallery, University of Nottingham

Tickets here: https://bit.ly/2jmdTsk

A Feminist Book Fortnight event

In June 2015 author Kamila Shamsie laid down a challenge to the male dominated publishing industry: “It is clear that there is a gender bias in publishing houses and the world of books. Well, enough. Why not try something radical? Make 2018 the Year of Publishing Women, in which no new titles should be by men”

The publisher And Other Stories duly decided to make this year the year they only published women.

At this event an editor from the publisher will talk about how this decision worked out, with guest readings from one of their authors and/or one of their translators.

Tickets: £3, including refreshments

To book a place, simply email us at  fiveleaves.bookshopevents@gmail.com

Five Leaves Bookshop is delighted to welcome political economist Ann Pettifor to give a talk as part of Feminist Book Fortnight and  in association with The Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice at The University of Nottingham)  Her book, The Production of Money: How to Break the Power of the Bankers is published by Verso Books .

What is money, where does it come from, and who controls it?  One may well ask.  To many of us, it is a mystery. A respected economist who predicted the 2008 crash and the reasons for it,  Ann Pettifor has a real skill for making the money system, the future of finance, economic policy and feminist economics engaging and accessible. She debunks much of what traditional economists and politicians tell us.

Ann Pettifor is a political economist with a focus on finance and sovereign debt. She is the Director of PRIME (Policy Research in Macroeconomics), an honorary research fellow at City University, a fellow of the New Economics Foundation, and has an honorary doctorate from Newcastle University. She has served on the board of the UN Development Report and in 2015 was invited onto the Economic Advisory Board by the British Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn. She is the author of The Real World Economic Outlook and The Coming First World Debt Crisis, and co-authored The Green New Deal and The Economic Consequences of Mr Osborne.  She also writes regularly for The Guardian.

“Ann Pettifor was always the ideal author of a book that shatters the fantasy of apolitical money and the toxic myth that monetary policy must remain a democracy-free zone. This book is now a reality.”

– Yanis Varoufakis, author of And the Weak Suffer What they Must?

Please note venue: not at the shop.  Venue is the Clive Granger Building A40 at University of Nottingham.  The building is number 16 on the campus map here https://bit.ly/1OYgQaj

Free, but booking essential. To book a place, simply email us at  fiveleaves.bookshopevents@gmail.com

Five Leaves is pleased to again organise the last day of Lowdham Book Festival – this year being its nineteenth year.

16 events over the day, dozens of stalls from new and second-hand booksellers, book organisations and letterpress printers. Children’s programme. Cafe.

All events are free.  The main festival is organised by The Bookcase of Lowdham.

This event will feature readings in English by John Gallas and readings in te Reo (Maori) and English by Vaughan Rapatahana.

John is a Carcanet poet who was born in New Zealand in 1950. He came to England in the 1970s to study Old Icelandic at Oxford and has since lived and worked in York, Liverpool, Upholland, Little Ness, Rothwell, Bursa, Leicester, Diyarbakir, Coalville and Markfield, as a bottlewasher, archaeologist, and teacher. His books are published by Cold Hub Press (nz) and Agraphia (Sweden), and The Little Sublime Comedy is his tenth Carcanet collection. He is the editor of two books of translations – 52 Euros and The Song Atlas – also published by Carcanet. He is a Fellow of the English Association and was 2016 Orkney St Magnus Festival poet. Last year Five Leaves published a pamphlet – Mad John’s Walk about John Clare, but expect to hear more about New Zealand at this reading.

You can hear Vaughan reading in te Reo and English here: http://www.nzepc.auckland.ac.nz/features/six-pack-sound/01/rapatahana.asp

Vaughan is a New Zealand writer and reviewer. Though perhaps best known for his poetry, his bibliography also includes prose fiction, educational material, academic articles, philosophy, and language critiques. Rapatahana is of Māori ancestry, and many of his works deal with the subjects of colonial repression and cultural encounter. His writing has been published in New Zealand and internationally. In 2009, he was a semi-finalist for the Proverse Prize in Literature and in 2013 he was a finalist for the erbacce prize for poetry.

In 2016 Rapatahana won the Proverse Prize in Literature.

£4.00 including refreshments. To  reserve your place simply email us at events@fiveleaves.co.uk

You are invited to join Eve and Anthony to launch their new book on life writing.

The Accidental Memoir truly is for all: writers and non-writers, teachers and students, the perfect book for anyone seeking inspiration to explore their own life story.

 The story of you. The Accidental Memoir takes you on a journey of self-discovery, from the origins of your family name and earliest memories, to what you’d invent and how you’d change the world. This beautifully illustrated book is filled with inventive and accessible writing prompts, as well as tips for anyone wanting to document their lives and explore their creativity. Want to flex your writing muscles, exorcise your demons, relive moments of magic, make sense of life, have fun and leave a lasting legacy? The Accidental Memoir will show you how.

This innovative concept was developed as an Arts Council project to help people tap into their own lives. Working with diverse groups from refugees to the elderly and prisoners, it has been a success in unearthing stories that otherwise may never have been told.

Eve Makis studied at Leicester University and worked as a journalist and radio presenter in the UK and Cyprus before becoming a novelist. Her first novel, Eat, Drink and be Married, was awarded the Young Booksellers International Book of the Year Award. A screen adaptation of her third book, Land of the Golden Apple was shown in April 2017 and won several best in category awards at International Film Festivals. Her fourth novel, The Spice Box Letters, published in five languages, was shortlisted for the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize, the East Midlands Book Award and received the Aurora Mardiganian Gold Medal.

Anthony Cropper was born in Fleetwood, Lancashire. He has published two novels and a collection of short stories. His play, I’ll Tell You About Love won the BBC Alfred Bradley Award for Radio Drama and he recently worked with Bristol Old Vic, writing the screenplay for the short film, Myself in Other Lives. Anthony has taught creative writing both in this country and abroad. He has worked with adult learners on short courses for the University of Hull (Centre for Lifelong Learning) and has also held writing residencies in schools through First Story, a charity set up to promote literacy and storytelling.

Free, refreshments provided, but please let us know you are coming by emailing us at  events@fiveleaves.co.uk

Istanbul: Memories of a city is a shimmering evocation, by turns intimate and panoramic, of one of the world’s great cities, by its foremost writer. Orhan Pamuk, winner of the Nobel Prize in 2006, was born in Istanbul, in the family apartment building where his mother first held him in her arms. His portrait of his city is thus also a self-portrait, refracted by memory and the melancholy that all Istanbullus share: the sadness that comes of living amid the ruins of a lost Ottoman Empire.

Five Leaves Book Group is open. It usually meets on the last week of each month, discussing fiction and non-fiction. We’re happy that people come once in a while, we’re happy if people turn up every time. As long as they have read the book. We don’t mind where people source their books but in the lead up to meetings we offer 15% discount on book group books, whether people are planning to come or not!

Free, refreshments provided.

To book a place, simply email us at  fiveleaves.bookshopevents@gmail.com

Nottingham CND is co-ordinating a Peace Week, in the mould of the Quaker Peace Week of three or four years ago ie asking sympathetic groups to organise their own events within the overall ethose. We’ll be doing… something.

Leafe Press was launched at a reading in Nottingham in April 2000, and has published a wide range of poetry, though our main interest at present is in innovative or experimental poetry.

Tonight’s reading comprises new and old work from Frances Presley, Martin Stannard and Andrew Taylor.

As well as pamphlets and books, Leafe publishes the online magazine Litter  (http://www.leafepress.com/litter/index.html).

£3, including refreshments. Please let us know you are coming by emailing us at  events@fiveleaves.co.uk

Nottingham’s second radical bookfair, organised by Five Leaves Bookshop, featuring stalls by national and local publishers, second-hand booksellers and a full supporting programme throughout the day.

Free, with free events. No need to book.

Full details of exhibitors and events to follow

Part of our annual Bread and Roses week

Cafe on site